“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”

The Challenge: use my iPad alone (no other computer) to do my genealogical research for 1 week!

Let me just start this post by stating…

I AM NOT A PATIENT PERSON.

That being said, let me make an observation about the iPad…

IT NEEDS A MOUSE!

I have been working almost exclusively with my iPad 2 for the past 3 days and I think I’ve come to the end of this Challenge… or to the end of my sanity!

My conclusions:

The iPad alone can be used for online genealogical research and records and database management.

The iPad needs an option to be able to disable finger gestures and use a mouse or similar device.

I will definitely take my iPad with me on my next research trip. It is small and light-weight and can easily be carried in a backpack or large purse. Any images or documents that I find can easily be saved via Evernote or photographed with the iPad’s camera. Using Splashtop 2, I can connect to my home desktop computer via wi-fi (if available) to have access to those records.

I’m still hoping to see the iOs version of RootsMagic sometime in the near future.

For me, the iPad doesn’t work well for daily online genealogical research. It is just too slow, or I am just too slow, or both.